Day 58, March 3 – Puerto Princesa
Puerto Princesa’s Subterranean River National Park is the major attraction for this port. This is an all-day excursion that involves a 2 hour drive each way – followed by a 20-minute outrigger boat ride to the park. Once at the park, you then board a smaller outrigger canoe for the 2-mile trip thru the underground river. After we reviewed numerous reviews online, along with many videos of the experience on YouTube, we elected to not take this tour, but to stay close to town and relax aboard ship.
We watched as the people on this tour boarded dozens of vans and headed off to the National Park. After talking with people who went on this tour, we learned that they all had a wonderful time, and everything was well organized. Since the tour uses 6-8 passenger vans instead of large buses, they recommended that you self-organize into groups about this size to avoid random selection of your travelling partners once you leave the ship. Each van was assigned a local guide.
There are some nice beaches in the area and a few people organized a van and driver to take them to one of them for the day. They reported that they had a good time. There was some confusion about their meeting place, but they were able to work it out.
Going Ashore
After spending the morning relaxing in our cabin, we left the ship around 2 PM and stopped by the tourist information tent to see what information was available. The people working there gave us a local map along with a nice shell necklace with a City of Puerto Princesa seal.
Puerto Princesa Welcome Tent
Welcome Necklace
The ship is moored inside a small, secure port area, that is not open to the public or local taxis. The main gate is about 200 yards away and this is where you will find tuk tuks and other local transportation. There is a small cruise terminal with Wi-Fi but we didn’t check the speed. Next to the terminal were a handful of shops selling a variety of T shirts and other souvenirs.
Off in the distance, on the Puerto Princesa City Baywalk, we spotted a large Christmas Tree covered with buoys, nets, ribbons and bows.
Christmas Tree
A shuttle bus was taking people to the SM Mall, about 3/4 of a mile straight down the road outside the main gate and was running about every 15- 20 minutes.
After browsing the shops on the wharf, we went back to the Tourist Tent to wait for the next shuttle bus.
Souvenir shops on the pier
After a few minutes we spotted Henk and Christel riding across the wharf on their folding tandem bicycle. It was a hot day for cycling, but they looked cool and comfortable as they headed toward the gangway.
Henk and Christel
SM Mall
Our shuttle bus arrived shortly, and we were soon on our way to the SM mall, arrivomg in about 15 minutes. Along the way we passed by numerous shops and businesses, but nothing that look interesting enough to visit on the way back to the ship. We had considered walking back to the ship, but it was hot enough for us to decide to take the bus back as well.
Shops enroute to the mall
The SM Mall was very modern, air-conditioned, with a variety of shops over 3 floors, including a large grocery store and department store. The free Wi-Fi was fast and available throughout the mall. If you want to stock up on anything, chances are good you will be able to find it here. After about 1 hour of browsing the shops we stopped by Jollibee’s, the Philippines answer to McDonalds, and tried their YumBurgers. Judy informed me that a Jollibees was built in San Diego a few years ago.
THe SM Mall didn’t look like much from the outside – but was very modern inside
Inside the mall
We took the last shuttle bus back to the ship it dropped us off outside the cruise terminal where they checked our cruise cards as we passed thru but they didn’t have any other security.
Sail Away
The city put on a very nice departure show with a dozen young girls, dressed in traditional garb, dancing to a lively tune, followed by 5 teen aged girls dancing to a bouncy song with the main chorus “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” After a few minutes they unfurled a large “Bon Voyage” banner and everyone on the wharf was dancing and waving as the Amsterdam pushed off the pier and started to spin us around to head out to sea.
Evening Aboard
Everyone ordered the same thing for our main courses this evening, Fish and Chips, which was a first for this cruise for our table for 10. We also noted that today was hump day for the world cruise as we reached the halfway point.
A singer named Giovanni was the headliner in the Queen’s Lounge. Billed as the California Soul Man he sang a variety of hits by Michael Jackson, The Temptations and Lionel Richie among others. His singing was great, but he spent almost 10 minutes introducing songs and chatting about other topics. We would have liked for him to sing more and talk less.
Giovanni
